Gas Content and Kinematics in Clumpy, Turbulent Star-forming Disks

We present molecular gas-mass estimates for a sample of 13 local galaxies whose kinematic and star-forming properties closely resemble those observed in z ≈ 1.5 main-sequence galaxies. Plateau de Bure observations of the CO[1-0] emission line and Herschel Space Observatory observations of the dust emission both suggest molecular gas-mass fractions of ∼20%. Moreover, dust emission modeling finds T _dust < 30 K, suggesting a cold dust distribution compared to their high infrared luminosity. The gas-mass estimates argue that z ∼ 0.1 DYNAMO galaxies not only share similar kinematic properties with high- z disks, but they are also similarly rich in molecular material. Pairing the gas-mass fractions with existing kinematics reveals a linear relationship between f _gas and σ / v _c, consistent with predictions from stability theory of a self-gravitating disk. It thus follows that high gas-velocity dispersions are a natural consequence of large gas fractions. We also find that the systems with the lowest t _dep (∼0.5 Gyr) have the highest ratios of σ / v_c and more pronounced clumps, even at the same high molecular gas fraction.